The purpose of this application is to secure continued funding for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Summer Research Experience Program. During the past four summers (2001-2004) we have trained 56 college and 83 medical/dental students. The goal of the program is to expose undergraduate college, physician assistant (PA), and medical/dental students to the challenges and rewards of a career in oncology. This proposal presents two distinct types of short-term, summer experience programs targeting 15 medical and dental students and 5 physician assistant students for an 8 week experience and 15 college students over a 10 week period. Specific programmatic goals are to: provide medical, dental and PA students with clinical/research experiences in oncology; and to provide college students with an opportunity to participate in cutting-edge basic scientific research. It is hoped that such training will attract trainees to careers in oncology or, at the very least, positively influence their perception of the role of the comprehensive cancer center. In addition to mentored experiences students will attend regularly scheduled seminars. These seminars will afford trainees with an opportunity to meet with faculty from throughout our institution as well as visiting faculty who are some of the leading researchers in the world to hear of the latest discoveries and looming challenges. Central to the design of both programs is the immersion of the student in the life of a comprehensive cancer center under the guidance of strong mentorship working on critical clinical/research questions. While the design may appear pedestrian, it is anything but passe. As will be demonstrated in this application, true program innovation rests not in the structure, but in the content (i.e., the science). We have been successful in the recruitment of underrepresented and minority students and will continue to focus on this issue. The program is evaluated at multiple levels and the evaluation plan is also designed to collect longer term outcome data. Continued collection of and reflection on evaluation data has been especially instructive over the years in fine tuning our program. Program curriculum and data from past evaluations have been published and presented at national meetings. This will continue to be done as a means of diffusing the lessons learned through the conduct of these programs. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]